Renewable Energy Technologies and Power Systems

This cluster includes science and engineering research into renewable energy technologies, including solar photovoltaics (PV), wind energy systems, biomass, energy storage, and hydrogen technologies as well as engineering and economics research applied to the electric power system. Much of the research on these topics is interdisciplinary, and integrates economics, operations research, and engineering to address the challenges in planning and operating the power system of the next century, in which many technologies and resources will be coordinated to efficiently and sustainably deliver energy.

Some of the research projects led by EME faculty include the development of a low-cost technology for measuring the solar irradiance of potential PV sites, engineering of electrochemical systems for hydrogen generation, electricity market design, resiliency in natural gas and electricity networks, the value of flexibility in power systems, long-term transmission investment planning under uncertainty, an exploration of possible paths of evolution for the combined power and natural gas systems in the Mid-Atlantic U.S., and a U.S. Department of Energy funded project on modernizing the power grid.

Research Experts

Seth Blumsack Professor of Energy Policy and EconomicsJohn and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering115 Hosler Building814-863-7597blumsack@psu.edu

Serguei Lvov Professor of Energy and Mineral Engineering and Materials Science and EngineeringJohn and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering207 Hosler Building814-863-8377lvov@psu.edu